A very British Bank Holiday Monday

Our Bank Holiday Monday started off in a typically British way, sat in a traffic jam in the rain - with Clare and Rich and their neighbours Dan and Leanne. Things perked up when we eventually arrived in Ratley , a pretty village on the Oxfordshire/Warwickshire border, where we began a walk which took in Edge Hill where the first major battle of the Civil War was fought in 1642. The walk culminated in a visit to the Castle Inn at Edgehill, with a fantastic view from the beer garden over South Warwickshire. It was a welcome sight at the top of a pretty steep climb!

Relaxing in Jephson Gardens

This August Bank Holiday we had a visit from Tim, David and Martin. Whilst Debbie, Heather and Jamie enjoyed a girlie shopping trip, Mark and the boys scoured the charity shops of Warwick and Leamington for board games and sampled the delights of Jephson Gardens during a rare spell of August sunshine. Later we played 'JetSetGo!' - Martin's personally designed board game which will undoubtedly be the charity shop 'must have' in 20 years time!

Welcome home

Louise and David arrived back in Blighty a couple of weeks ago after living in New Zealand for four years. Today we had a little reunion of some uni mates with Louise and David near Nottingham and were treated to some cordon bleu veggie cuisine. It was great to catch up after so long. Meeting up also gave Debbie and Gayle a chance to compare bumps.

An evening drink

A slightly chilly evening drink at the Saxon Mill near Warwick. The picture tells a lie - we rapidly retired to the much cosier inside to sit on huge leather sofas - although alas no fire yet. After all it is still August, although as Mark and Lucy kept reminding us, it had only been 13 degrees when they left Helmsley in North Yorkshire that morning. It'll soon be Christmas!

Restoration Village

The BBC's Restoration Village programme has Chedham's Yard in Wellesbourne as one of the three Midlands buildings people are able to vote to restore. We took a visit to this crumbling but fascinating time capsule of rural life. Three workshops crammed full of tools, benches and equipment, including a wheelwright and a working forge, started in the early 1800s and untouched since it closed in the 1970s. You can vote for it to be restored!

On the beams in the Wheelwrights workshop are snippets of weather records, such as the one below, which reads that the last day of October 1934 there was a "heavy snow storm".

Warwick Castle

Yesterday we spent a lovely day with Sue, Mark and (nearly) 1 year old Beth, and enjoyed a trip to Warwick Castle, our first since we moved to the area. We arrived just in time for the jousting, got dive-bombed by a hawk, none of which seemed to faze Beth, and wondered around the grounds and some of the inside for a very pleasant couple of hours.


And after the exertions of climbing the towers and ramparts, we needed an ice cream.

Orleton Park School

A few weeks ago we visited Debbie's old school of Orleton Park in Wellington, Shropshire (1987-1992) to take some final photos before they knock it down. The school closed for the last time in July and is to become part of the new Hadley Learning Community which opens in September eleswhere in Telford.

Debbie says that too many significant places in her life have been knocked down - her infant school, Orleton Lane Infants; Wembley Stadium, where she saw her first football match (Telford FC v Enfield Town FC in the 1988 FA Trophy final) ; and now her secondary school.

St Michael's Mount

We also enjoyed a walk along the causeway to St Michael's Mount, a rocky island near Penzance, crowned by medieval church and castle. At high tide, the sea surrounds this island completely.

Seals on the Isles of Scilly

On our return to St. Mary's from Tresco, we took a slight detour on our boat, "Wizard" to some of the outlying rocks to the north and east of the islands. We were very excited to see a number of seals basking in the afternoon sunshine, and swimming around the boat.

Tresco Abbey Garden

We thoroughly enjoyed the subtropical gardens on the island of Tresco. Tresco Abbey Garden is 19 acres of winding, tree lined avenues, a dazzling array of flower species, as well as statues and sculptures by respected artists.

The Isles of Scilly

The Isles of Scilly are an archipelago of five inhabited islands and numerous other small rocky islets about 28 miles off the southwesternmost tip of England. The sea is remarkably blue (at least on a sunny day) and the sand is very white, giving it an almost Caribbean feel, especially as there are lots of palm trees.

A day trip to the Isles of Scilly

We flew by a little plane from Land’s End Airport to the Isles of Scilly.

The Eden Project

We were impressed by the Eden Project, plants and gardens housed in a disused china clay pit near St. Austell. The complex includes two giant, transparent domes that house plant species from around the world. The first emulates a tropical environment, housed in the world’s largest greenhouse, and it is VERY hot, although not quite as hot as in parts of Britain recently, like our garden when Debbie's dad was cutting the hedge! This was the closest we are likely to get to the Ecuadorian jungle (sorry Kay!).

The second dome emulates a warm temperate, Mediterranean-type environment, so reminded us a bit of Cyprus.

Bump at Land's End

Debbie is getting bigger every day. The bump seemed to enjoy its trip to England's most westerly point.

Land's End

On Sunday we enjoyed a trip to Land’s End, the most westerly tip of the English (but not British) mainland. We started at Sennen Cove and walked the mile or so along the South West Coast Path to Land’s End, which is a bit of a theme park, but still worth a visit.

The Birdhouse

Whilst in Mousehole, we stayed in "The Birdhouse", a wonderful old cottage in the town with spectacular sea views from the upstairs balcony.

Mousehole

We had a week staying in Mousehole (pronounced Mouz'l), a fishing village on the south west Cornish coast near Penzance and Newlyn and only a few miles from Land's End.

A traumatic and defining event in the recent history of the village was the Penlee lifeboat disaster of December 19, 1981, in which the lifeboat and its entire crew, all based in Mousehole, were lost during an attempted rescue in hurricane-force winds. Mousehole is known for its Christmas illuminations, created each year to raise money for charity. Since 1981, every December 19 the lights have been turned off in memory of the victims of the lifeboat disaster. Tom Bawcocks Eve is a unique celebration held on December 23 each year to celebrate the ending of a famine in the 16th century by local resident Tom Bawcock. This festival is the inspiration behind the book “The Mousehole Cat” by Antonia Barber.

Dartmoor

We celebrated with a "take-away" cream tea at Postbridge, a hamlet in the heart of Dartmoor, best known for its ancient "clapper" bridge. The bridge is very nice. Not so sure about the cream tea.

Incidentally, the best cream tea we had on our holiday (and we sampled quite a few) was at Loy's Cove in Cornwall, a few miles down the coast from Mousehole. The cream tea there was excellent, and particularly welcome after our hike along the very overgrown South West Coastal Path from nearby Lamorna.

A trip to Devon and Cornwall

We have just arrived back from a lovely week in Devon and Cornwall. We had a day on Dartmoor to start with and Debbie was very excited to see some wild ponies.